


Hands That Link In Prayer

by ZeldaByrdeBishop



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Babies!, F/M, Seizures, violence against the disabled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27193657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeldaByrdeBishop/pseuds/ZeldaByrdeBishop
Summary: A window into Zelda Spellman's life had she stayed in Japan and married Daiki Hana.
Relationships: Zelda Spellman/Daiki Hana (OC)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	Hands That Link In Prayer

**Author's Note:**

> *This fic contains systematic violence against disabled persons*
> 
> This is an AU where Zelda Spellman stayed in Japan and married translator Daiki Hana.   
> (I know I haven't gotten to finish 'The Shock of Heat" yet, but hopefully this fic enhances the events of that fic, rather than retracting from its value now that you all know what could have happened)
> 
> Also!!!! Happy Birthday @timelady-queenofhell (It's not the halloween fic, but I think you'll forgive me!
> 
> Enjoy Zelda living in a loving environment, surrounded by children, untouched by 1/3rd of her life's horrors!

He was late walking into the desecrated church that night. The French text he was working to translate was proving more difficult with the rise in colloquial terms in the recent decade that he determined it wouldn’t be able to be deciphered until he and Zelda were able to travel to France. He knew she would tell him to go on without her, but he’d already written her sister in the hopes she would be willing to babysit their children for a prolonged period of time after Zelda gave birth to their new child. He hated traveling without her. 

Daiki silently approached his wife, who already stood in front of the large goat epitaph, her back facing him and wrapped his arm around her back, his fingers gently grazing her swollen abdomen. She turned her face to smile at him as her arm mirrored his action, but he could see she was troubled. 

He brought his free hand forward, his fingers facing the floor as his palm faced her, and her hand met his. Their eyes shut and he began to pray out loud for them. This was their pattern. On most nights they met in the church and knelt before the Dark Lord to pray before returning home for dinner, the children periodically accompanied them, but were most often watched by Seia-san, who insisted. When they could not meet in the church, they met in their bedchamber. This usually only occurred when one of them or a child was ill. 

“Unholy Father, we thank you for this cursed day. We praise you for your continued greatness and the gifts you bestow upon our family. We thank you for our born children; Aiya, Hiriko, Sato, and Katsuki. We also thank you for Oki, who is not yet born, and anxiously await to meet his smiling face. We pray you keep him strong and growing. We ask that you continue to work though our immediate and extended family. We send our prayers out to Edward who is working through your graces to become one of your High Priests. We remain devoted and forever in your debt, O’ Dark One. Amen.”

They then moved to the side of the church hand in hand to where the unholy prayer candles sat and Daiki lit a match, handing it’s flickering glow to Zelda. The witch shut her eyes for a moment in a small prayer of her own, before opening them to light the candle before them and handed the burning match back to her husband, who blew it out and discarded the match. 

They stood in their silence for a small while, they’d grown accustomed to not speaking after prayer until they returned home, but tonight Daiki could feel his wife’s words settling too close to her teeth and he gently stroked his thumb over her knuckles. 

“Daiki, I can feel that something is just not right with this pregnancy…”

He frowned deeply. This wasn’t the first she’d alluded to this idea, but this was the first she’d mentioned it so directly. 

“Do you need to make another appointment with Seia-san?”

“She can’t fix this and she already knows. We’ve gone over the tests a hundred times and haven’t found an anomaly yet.” 

He wished he could chalk her emotions up to third trimester hysteria, but he recalled the last time he hadn’t heeded her words concerning a bad feeling in a matter concerning their children. He would never forgive himself for Aiya’s accident. He should have kept a better eye out. He should have been more careful. 

“Is there anything we can do?”

She shook her head, tears pricking her eyes. 

He nodded and kissed the top of her head before moving to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her, his palms over their child. He had no words of comfort and he refused to speak falsities, but he would lead them through this. He had to have faith all would be alright. 

*****

Later that night, he was up at his desk deep in his translation as Zelda lay in their bed, her familiar Vinegar Tom in her lap, his demonic head against her swollen stomach, while his familiar Rabbit sat in the lap of their eldest daughter, Aiya. Their children sat curled up around Zelda (well, all but Aiya who’s wheelchair was parked beside the bed), as his wife read them a bedtime story after their nightly reading of the Satanic Scripture. 

He could feel himself getting distracted as Zelda read, she had a knack for taking the children (and himself) through the story as if it were the greatest epic one could ever experience. The children groaned outwardly when she declared the chapter over. 

“One more chapter, please!” Begged Sato as he curled deeper into her side.

“Please?! Please?! Please?! Please?!” Their youngest, Katsuki, joined as she got up bouncing on the bed, causing Vinegar Tom to open one eye to keep watch. 

“No, I warned you we would read one chapter. Otherwise you will all be too tired for your chores tomorrow,” Zelda scolded softly as she set the book to the side.

Katsuki groaned loudly and fell back into the bed in a starfish position. 

Daiki smiled and stood up, lifting Katsuki to sling her over his shoulder to take her to bed, “Come. Your mother says it’s time for bed. Kiss her goodnight and run along!”

Sato slowly pried himself out of his mother’s side, making small sounds of protest before kissing his mother’s cheek and then her stomach. “Goodnight, Mamma. G’night Oki!” And then he scampered off.

“Goodnight, Sato!” Zelda called after the boy before stoking her dog’s ear, “Vinnie can you make sure he brushes his teeth?”

The dog grumbled, but rose and went off after the boy who immediately began to complain. 

Hiriko, who was curled into her other side kissed Zelda’s other cheek, giving her mother a hug before easing off the bed to go to her room. She was their quiet one, but he admired how Zelda seemed to always understand what she needed before she even had to mumble. 

Finally, he leaned Katsuki down and Zelda’s smile grew as she kissed the girl’s nose before their youngest daughter returned the kiss giggling, “Night, Night!”

“Goodnight, Darling.”

And with that he swung her back over his shoulder, causing the girl to erupt into giggles before beginning to walk her out of the room, pausing only just slightly to smile as he watched Zelda reach out to stroke their eldest daughter’s hair. 

How had they gotten this lucky? 

He prayed Satan would keep their little Oki safe. One more would be such a joy. 

Once the children were all tucked into bed (even Sato with his begrudgingly clean teeth) and the lights had been snuffed out he finally crawled between the sheets of their bed, pressing a few gentle kisses to Zelda’s shoulder as his hand coasted over their Oki while she read.

“You told the children one chapter a night.”

She smirked and shrugged under his lips, “what they won’t know won’t hurt them.”

Daiki smiled against the skin on her shoulder before gently pulling the blankets back and her nightgown up to reveal the bump, gently pressing his hand into it - smiling when he was greeted with a push back.

“Aiya wants to be there when he’s born. She’s thinking of becoming a midwife,” Zelda stated from behind the book.

He frowned a bit and looked up to her, “You told her no, correct?”

Zelda placed her own bookmark into the book before setting it to the side. “I told her, yes. She’s thirteen. She’s almost a full witch now.”

“Witnessing a birth is not even something I wish upon full witches,” he argued as the limb from within her pressed against his palm again.

“She will be fine, Daiki,” Zelda purred as she shut her eyes, her hand finding its way into his hair to stroke his soft black locks. 

He frowned but focused his energy back to the baby for a while longer before bringing her nightdress back down and pulling the blankets up, wrapping her in his arms. 

“If you’re sure,” He whispered into her hair, burying his nose in the soft red curls that he always secretly wished one of their children possessed.

She nodded, half asleep already, but it was clear her mind had been made up and in matters involving their children he knew she was the one who should take the lead. She wouldn’t lead them astray.

He recalled the day Aiya was thrown from the horse. It was his fault. He should have been watching her, but had struck up a conversation with Brother Kenji and before he knew it - his beloved girl was motionless on the ground. 

He would never forget the shame he’d felt as Zelda burst through the hospital door, red curls not even up as they usually were, looking down at their unconscious daughter who would never walk again, before demanding answers of the doctor. “How can you not fix this!? It’s just shattered bone for Satan’s sake!”

“Zelda-san, this isn’t just broken bone. This is a cursed action.”

“A CURSE!?”

He will never forget how she spun around to face him, her eyes full of rage. Only a month ago he’d broken open a crypt he’d found in Russia, finding scrolls of further knowledge of the astrological universe, but that crypt had come with a warning - threatening the first born of the one who broke the seal. She’d advised him to heed this written warning - he had not. He’d argued that their first born wasn’t male - it was likely any curse would not apply to them. He’d been wrong. 

Zelda had brought her hands up to snatch his neck, but he was only spared as she heard the clink of a needle against a vial and turned to see the doctor filling a syringe with a deadly concoction which had been used for centuries in witch medicine. Zelda knew it’s details but he did not, all he knew was once dose was enough to paralyze and kill a horse. 

His eyes widened and Zelda quickly got between the doctor and their daughter, “What is the meaning of this?” The question was facetious. The coven was only as strong as its weakest links - disabled witches were always terminated. 

The doctor turned without answering the question, testing the syringe before walking forward, aiming past Zelda who quickly backed up in tandem with him, reaching out to grab the doctor’s neck as the man continued undeterred by a distraught mother to pursue his contractual obligation. Daiki could feel his panic rising as the doctor pursued even to the point of Zelda’s body bending backwards over their daughter’s in an attempt to stop him, causing Daiki to quickly reached out, supporting her back with his hands to prevent further harm to their daughter as Zelda crushed the doctor’s windpipe between her hands. She threw the man to the floor only to grab his face in her hands to snap his neck, the man falling to the floor limp. 

He hadn’t known she was capable of that.

He remembered watching, still stricken by shock as her brother Edward (who’d happened to be visiting at the time) came into the room, analysing the scene as his sister smoked at the window. Edward would find them a mortal wheelchair. Edward would defend her case against the court of witches and Edward would dispose of the doctor’s body as if it wasn’t the first time. 

If Zelda hadn’t been there - who knows what would have happened? He wasn’t sure he would have been able to kill. 

Their beautiful Aiya….

If Zelda thought she was ready - she must be.

***

Aiya’s were wide and fearful as she watched her very poised and proper mother, hunkered against the birthing table, drenched in sweat, crying out in pain as another contraction hit. 

Her father gently brushed some of her mother’s hair away from her face, only to receive a slap that was so harsh Aiya’s jaw dropped. Her Aunt Hilda had told her and her siblings of her mother’s violent temper, but she hadn’t really believed her until now. 

“I will kill you if you touch me again!” mother snapped before another contraction took over and Aiya watched as her father, despite the threats, supported her, somehow unphased by such un-characteristic harsh words. 

“We’re almost there!” Grandma Seia praised before turning to Aiya, “Now, if you’re going to be here, I need you to work.” she quickly motioned for Aiya to come. 

The girl wheeled her chair over to the woman and was handed a warm wet towel. 

“Zelda-chan. Can we get you on the table?”

Her mother nodded through whimpers, leaning back against her father for a moment before he and Grandma Seia got her on the table, trying to school her face as her mother’s legs were spread, her grandmother starting to work, checking to make sure the head was where it should be and where her mother’s cervix dilation was, speaking to Aiya as she did so. 

She knew she should be listening to her grandmother more closely, but could only catch bits and pieces between her mother’s verbal distress, which alternated between cries of pain and pleads to Aiya’s father that something wasn’t right. Her mother trusted her not to let this get to her - she’d warned her to keep her head no matter what she heard or saw. Aiya tried to focus.

Suddenly, her grandmother grabbed the arm of her wheelchair, bringing her closer as - there it was - just the very top of the baby’s head! 

“He’s crowning, Zelda,” her grandmother declared as she tapped the inside of Zelda’s thigh. 

Aiya could hear her father murmuring praises and comforts as her mother fought against the pain verbally, pushing with her grandmother’s instructions. She understood her father’s hesitancy to let her witness this - she hadn’t predicted how gruesome bringing life into the world would be. She fought every instinct that told her to be alarmed. Her grandmother wasn’t alarmed so neither should she be.

“Get the towel ready, Aiya…” her grandmother warned as she held her hand under where the baby’s head was about to be. “Push! Only a few left.”

Her mother clutched at her father’s hands as she cried out, pushing her new brother’s head into the world.

Another three pushes brought out his shoulders.

A final push brought out the rest of his body and her grandmother laid the baby covered in mucus and blood onto the towel, pinching it, causing the baby to immediately begin to wail. Aiya held onto the baby, setting him in her lap as she watched more carnage emerge from her mother before her grandmother turned back to the baby, cutting the cord that connected him and their mother.

“You did well, Aiya. Daiki-kan you owe me money!” her grandmother’s joking voice rang in celebration.

Aiya could feel her muscles relax at the sound of her mother chuckling, while her

grandmother cleaned and attached bandages where needed. Her father rolled his eyes smiling, his hands still holding her mother’s as he leaned over to look at the baby in Aiya’s hands. 

“Zelda, he’s beautiful…”

“Give him to me,” her mother demanded, reaching down towards Aiya. 

She was about to hand him over when Grandma Seia took him first.

“You know the rules, Zelda-chan! He’s mine first. Come, Aiya.”

Her father placed a kiss to her mother’s forehead before following Aiya into the adjoining room. 

“Zelda’s worried that some-” her father began before 

“I know.” Grandma Seia affirmed, cutting him off. 

Aiya had heard only a small whisper that something might be wrong with their brother, but had forgotten about it until her mother’s worried cries in labor. 

She watched her grandmother as she wiped off the crying baby within the warm towel before setting him down on the cold table, suddenly gasping, resting her head under the baby’s head as the baby became silent and stiff as soon as he made contact with the cold table. His spaced out eyes rolled to the side with his head, connecting to Aiya’s but she could see no sign of recognition or presence in his eyes. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Her father asked anxiously, moving to take him, but her grandmother grabbed his hand, watching the infant as she cradled his head, her back deflating. Slowly, the infant came back to. His eyes focused on Aiya, big and brown before resuming his crying. 

Grandma Seia shook her head as she rubbed the infant’s stomach, “.......that was a seizure.”

Father frowned deeply, looking down between Grandma Seia and the baby. 

Aiya watched as her father’s jaw tensed, his eyes taking to the floor.

“What does that mean?” She asked. 

“Aiya…. I need you to leave. Your father and I have something to discuss. Don’t say anything to your mother,” Grandma Seia instructed, her eyes pained. 

“Why?” She asked, wheeling closer to the table. 

Neither adult spoke for a moment - looking between each other and then back to the crying baby. 

“Why?!” Aiya urged. What was going on!?

“Yes. Why?”

She spun in her chair to see her mother, leaning against the door frame, her legs shaky, her face white as a sheet. 

Grandma Seia spoke first. “Zelda-chan. You shouldn’t be up. You’re just setting back your reco-”

“Give him to me,” her mother insisted, moving to step forward but father quickly moved before she could , wrapping an arm around her waist, holding onto her elbow to prevent her legs from giving in. 

Grandma Seia cleared her throat, and resumed her usual tall posture, taking a needle and syringe from the cabinet above. She held it up to show Zelda it was empty before turning back to the baby, parroting her earlier words, “You know the rules…”

Aiya frowned deeply and looked back to her mother, “Mama, you can sit here…” She said, patting her lap, but father simply shook his head. 

“Thank you, Ayia. There’s a chair in the other room.” She watched as he made sure mother was steady before leaving to grab the chair, her mother only having to stand on her own for a minute before she was set in a chair with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, one of her father’s hands keeping it in place as the other swept her hair behind her ears. 

Aiya looked back up to her Grandma Seia and the baby and watched as she extracted a vial of blood. Her grandmother set it to the side and then weighed the baby, before taking him to the basin beside Aiya to officially wash him. Aside from Grandma Seia, only Aiya could see the seizure that the baby suffered as a result of being moved into a new position along with the shock of the water. She watched the tension in her grandmother’s shoulders worsen as the baby stopped crying while his muscles seized. Even if her parents couldn’t see it, the stark difference in sound would be alarming. She wondered if a cloaking spell could work with sound. 

Once the baby was cleaned, he was wrapped in a blanket and given to her mother. 

“Aiya and I will do the tests. Don’t let her stand,” her grandmother warned her father before gesturing to her to come over to where a series of vials had already been prepared. 

She moved to park beside the table, glancing back to her parents for only a moment, to watch her father kneel beside her mother, wiping tears from her cheeks as she moved the baby to nurse. 

“Aiya.”

She brought her attention back to the vials. 

“With these we can determine many things about this child, but for him….this is the important one,” her grandmother explained, lifting up the last vial. “This will tell us if he has any ailments of the brain…”

Aiya frowned deeply and nodded, watching as her grandmother added twelve drops of blood to each vial, before shaking them each, regarding their colors as she made notes. 

Finally, they arrived at the last vial and Aiya watched as it turned a putrid green color, bubbling at the top, but not boiling over. She looked up to her grandmother and knew immediately that this was not good even if she didn’t know it’s specific diagnosis. 

Silently, her grandmother took the vial and walked it over, revealing it to her mother. 

Aiya never wanted to see the look in her mother’s eyes that that vial caused ever again. 

“Zelda…..” her grandmother cooed, reaching out her hands for the baby, “You know these things happen….”

“No.”

“Zelda-chan.”

“No.”

Her grandmother set the vial down on a nearby table and moved to take the baby, but stopped as the cabinets began to shake. “ZELDA.”

Aiya feared the glass in the cabinets might shatter as her mother clutched the baby tighter to her breast. 

Her father took her mother’s knee into his hand from his kneeling position, tears in his eyes, “Zelda….we can’t keep him…. The council will find out. Edward can’t plead this case like he did Ai- the other one,” she heard her father correct, immediately leaning forward. He was going to say her name. What case? 

“You’ll be excommunicated…...We live on church grounds, Zelda. Think of the other children….” her father continued.

“Then we all go, or I go,” her mother combated, her grip on Oki not loosening. 

Her father looked stricken, “We can’t live outside of the church Zelda….our children are illegal.  _ Our union _ is illegal...and I  _ can’t _ live without you. I won’t.”

Her mother’s eyes were full of tears that rolled onto her cheeks, but they remained steadfast, “Then we go farther.”

Her father’s hand slipped down to her ankle, “.....if the church doesn’t kill you first. This is a crime, Zelda. This is the  _ second time.  _ They won’t let you go a second time.”

It was finally beginning to hit Aiya what the crime was and she looked up to her grandmother, who must have seen the panic and rage in her eyes because she quickly walked over and took her face in her hands, “He’s not going anywhere…...and neither are you.”

And then the rest hit her. She had been the cause for her mother’s absence for those few weeks two years ago. She was the reason her mother had been on trial - because her mother kept  _ her.  _ She remembered how ragged her mother looked after those few weeks. She has no clue what a “witch’s cell” entailed, but she knew it wasn’t pleasant. She looked down at her legs, frozen. Had the coven really ordered her death just because she couldn’t walk? She looked back up to her mother, who extended her hand. 

Slowly, she wheeled her chair over, the wheels feeling heavier than usual, until she could take her mother’s hand. Her mother pulled her closer, kissing her hair as she squeezed her hand. “No one is going anywhere, Aiya. We all stick together. Things happen and….sometimes the coven is not to be…. Rules are not always just. So, as a family -” Her mother looked up to her grandmother, who finished the statement with her, “We stand tall with dignity and do what is right.”

Aiya looked down to her father, who wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded to her, his words for them and them alone, “I will keep you and Oki safe.” He stood up collecting himself. “We’ll keep Oki’s condition secret. Perhaps Hilda can make a balm…” 

Her mother nodded and kissed Aiya’s hand before speaking, 

“See...all is well.”

***

Zelda lied in her and Daiki’s bed, staring at the ceiling, listening as Hilda sang to Oki in the other room. She was grateful her sister had made it into the country in time for his birth. She had very few people she could trust around her family anymore. 

She didn’t turn her head as Daiki turned in their bed to face her. He was silent for a long time as they just listened to the clock tick while Hilda sang. 

“Zelda, you have to sleep,” his voice interrupted the silence, tense. “I don’t understand how you can lie there exhausted and not sleep.”

She didn’t respond for a moment, her jaw working around the words until she settled, “I’m angry with you.”

He seemed to shrink beside her, “....I know………......I’m not telling you not to be angry. Simply be angry with me asleep.”

She pursed her lips and glanced to the clock before looking back to the ceiling. A spider began crawling across it. Her sister had brought some of the damned creatures. Hopefully Vinegar Tom would eat them. 

Daiki braved touching her, gently running his hand over her arm. She flinched slightly, but didn’t move, so he continued. He gently rubbed her arm before pressing his lips to her shoulder and then to her hair. “I’m sorry.”

She said nothing, her eyes heavy, but her body refused to sleep. 

“You’re right….you are always so very right, darling, and it’s for that reason I fear losing you above so much,” His voice was soft in her ear, a whisper, and her lower lip began to tremble, “Thank you, for having the strength I do not - I owe our family to you. Our eldest and our youngest. Please forgive me my weakness…...I was only afraid of losing you when I’m meant to protect you.” 

Her gaze didn’t leave the ceiling asa few tears slipped past her defenses, before she slowly reached over and he took her hand, burying his nose in her shoulder as a tear hit her flesh. 

“Daiki…”

He slowly lifted his face and propped himself up to look down at her, rubbing her fingers with his thumb. 

“You do protect us.”

She could see in his eyes that he knew this was not true, but she hoped he could see in her’s that she knew he did try. He did try so hard. 

He shook his head looking down at her, wiping away her tears, “I do not, but I will do better.”

He leaned down and gently kissed her lips, separating only to kiss her again. She brought her free hand up to hold his face before he parted from her lips. He pressed a kiss to her nose and then to her forehead before leaving one last final kiss on her lips. 

“Daiki,” she murmured as he parted from her. “We never prayed today….”

He frowned deeply and looked away from her eyes to brush a few of her curls away on the pillows. “.........I don’t think I would like to.”

“....Please do.”

He looked back down to her and then after a moment he nodded, taking her hand back into his, entwining their fingers, watching them as he prayed. 

“Unholy father………….We thank you for Oki. May he grow into the kind of man...who helps me forget how angry I am that you’ve forsaken us so….Amen.”

He slowly looked down to Zelda, who gave him a small smile of approval, squeezing his hand as she shut her eyes. Finally, letting herself be lulled to sleep by the sound of his breathing beside her ear as his warm arms held her. There is not one sentence in the Dark Lord’s text that stated prayer had to always be done in praise. 


End file.
